A pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC has enlisted a group of documentary filmmakers to spearhead an advertising campaign targeting her opponent in the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump.
Filmmakers including Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp), Amy Berg (An Open Secret), Amir Bar-Lev (Happy Valley), Kristi Jacobson (A Place at the Table), Tyler Measom (An Honest Liar), Liz Garbus (What Happened, Miss Simone?), Marshall Curry (Point and Shoot) and Roger Ross Williams (God Loves Uganda) have partnered with the Local Voices super PAC to produce anti-Trump campaign ads, with the first spot set to air Wednesday in Butler County, Ohio, according to Variety.
The effort by Local Voices — a Democratic PAC that ran a similar advertising campaign supporting President Obama in the 2012 race — comes as Trump and Clinton prepare to flood airwaves across the country with ads just two months out from Election Day.
The first ad of this cycle, directed by Grady, features Joan Powell from West Chester Township, a Republican for 50 years who says she simply cannot bring herself to vote for Trump.
“He’s name-calling and bullying,” Powell says in the 60-second spot, which will reportedly air across 11 cable networks in Ohio. “That’s no kind of role model for the children in this community, or in this nation.”
Another spot features a man named Richard Leibert, a retired Army Colonel from Cascade County, Montana, who warns that Trump “doesn’t have the temperament and the personal discipline to be a proper commander-in-chief.”
Local Voices, founded by documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch (Bully) in 2008, says on its website that it plans to produce more than 50 television advertisements ahead of the election, to air in swing state markets.
The group of filmmakers joins several high-profile directors who have already contributed their talents to the Clinton campaign this year.
In July, Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams and Avatar director James Cameron both produced videos that aired during the Democratic National Convention.
Film and television director Mike Judge (Office Space, King of the Hill) wanted to produce an anti-Trump ad campaign this year featuring the fictional character of President Camacho from his 2006 film Idiocracy. However, Judge said in August that 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the film, would not sign off on the rights to the character.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum